National Coordinators

​Anita Rao, Student Advocacy Coordinator

National Staff Bios

Terra Ziporyn Snider, PhDExecutive Director, Co-Founder

Terra Ziporyn Snider is an award-winning author of numerous popular health and medical books including The New Harvard Guide to Women's Health, The Women's Concise Guide to Emotional Well-Being, Alternative Medicine for Dummies, and Nameless Diseases. A Yale graduate and a Searle Fellow at the University of Chicago, Terra earned a doctorate in the history of science and medicine while conducting research in biopsychology. A former associate editor at The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Terra has also written extensively on a wide range of health and medical issues in The Huffington Post​, The Harvard Health Letter, JAMA, Consumer Reports, Weight Watchers Magazine, Business Week, and Longevity among others. Terra has been awarded science-writing fellowships by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole.

Kari Oakes, PA-CResearch/Development Co-Director

Kari Oakes is a physician assistant and medical writer with a background in primary care and emergency medicine. She has extensive experience with adolescent and young adult populations; she has also been involved in many aspects of research in a variety of academic and clinical settings. The mother of a middle schooler and a high schooler, Kari has been active in education policy issues at the local level for many years. She is passionate about the need for evidenced, commonsense interventions to protect health and safety and improve the academic performance of our nation's children.

Heather Macintosh, BADonor Relations Manager

Heather Macintosh is the parent of two children who have attended private and public school and are currently in middle school and high school. She has served as president of her children’s elementary school PTA and held many leadership roles in the school community, with a focus on the arts and wellness. She has also served on committees investigating school improvement and academic rigor for the Annapolis Education Commission. Before moving from Canada to settle with her family in Annapolis, Maryland, Heather served as a researcher for CBC Television, covering education, science, current affairs and environmental issues. Her high school daughter leaves the house at 6:20 a.m. to go to school.

Lynn Keefe, MD, FAAPHealth Policy Director

Lynn Keefe is a pediatrician in private practice in Florida and serves as the Director of the Child Protection Team that cares for abused children in her community in Okaloosa County. Lynn has advocated for later school starts since 1999, when the landmark research on the impact of later school times was being done in Minnesota. Okaloosa County has the one of the earliest start times of record, 7:00a.m., with buses picking up children as early as 5:40a.m. Lynn has been instrumental in working with local legislators and professional organizations in Florida to introduce landmark legislation (HB 67) to enact an endorsement of a later school start time.

Phyllis Payne, MPHImplementation Director

Phyllis Payne is a Health Educator and Science Writer with extensive experience in community health education and outreach. Phyllis is a co-founder of SLEEP in Fairfax, the advocacy group that successfully ushered in healthy school start times in Fairfax County, VA. As a contributor and editor for the American Institues for Research, Phyllis worked with the National Heart Lung and Blood Institutes' "Health Topics" - an online health resource for patients, caregivers, and the public. Phyllis also served as a health educator, program planner and Interim Associate Director of the National Kidney Disease Education Program.

Jenny Cooper Silberman has been a champion for the health, safety and well-being of children and youth both in her professional work and as a volunteer. Most recently, she co-founded the Wayland, MA chapter of Start School Later and has promoted legislative efforts to support healthy school start times throughout Massachusetts. Within her local community, she has co-chaired the Wayland Citizens for Better Oral Health, served as Executive Director of the Friends of Wayland Youth Social Workers, Inc., and coordinated nutrition and fitness programs through the PTO. She also has served on the board of various nonprofit organizations.

Maribel Cabrera Ibrahim, MEMOperations Director, Co-Founder

Maribel Cabrera Ibrahim isthe Facilities and Capital Projects Manager for the Anne Arundel County Public Library and head of the Maintenance and Delivery Department. Her expertise in logistics, team building and process development has been used to manage the collaborative efforts of this growing national organization, including website development, newsletter publication, membership management, communications and project management. Recently, Maribel was recognized by her library peers with the 2015 Team Achievement Award for the Severna Park Library renovation. Previously, Maribel served as a Project Engineer for FedEx Express and as an Industrial Engineer for General Motors. During a nine year hiatus to raise her three young children, she also held various leadership positions with other community support groups, including Mocha Moms, MOMS Club® and MOPS before embarking on Start School Later. Visit Maribel online at LinkedInor Twitter.

Ann Gallagher, MAT, MSResearch/Development Co-Director

Ann Gallagher has pursued research in biological and behavioral sciences in several settings. As a lecturer at Catholic University since 2006 she has taught biology, environmental science, earth science, statistics, scientific analysis, behavior, and genetics. Ann has analyzed the links between environment, health, risk levels, and funding for juveniles supervised by justice systems as a Senior Research Consultant with The Lloyd Society, Inc. and as a Research Professor at George Mason University. For projects supported by the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and Pew Center on the States Ann has created national surveys and censuses for analysis of national data collections. Her concern for at–risk youth led her to organize the March 2013 symposium, Exploring the Adolescent Need for Sleep: The Consequences of and the Need for Appropriate School Start Times, on the campus of Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland. Currently Ann is serving on the executive board for her county Parent Teacher Association (MCCPTA), is the COB for The Lloyd Society, Inc., and the Founding Director of Ann’s Backyard Forest, an educational natural resources non-profit. In 2013 Ann was awarded the President’s Call to Service Award for over 8,000 hours of volunteer service.

Stacy Simera, MSSA, LISW-S, SAPCommunications Director

Stacy Simera is an independently licensed social worker and certified substance abuse professional. Stacy provides counseling at a private practice in Northeast Ohio, facilitates psycho-educational programming at a multiple sclerosis clinic, conducts trainings on mental health issues for foster parents and caseworkers, teaches college, and serves on the Alumni Board of Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. Stacy also chairs the Sleep Committee for the Ohio Adolescent Health Partnership and has presented on the topic of sleep at various state and national conferences, served as a source for documentaries on teen sleep, and has written a guest editorial on American school start times in the British journal Education and Health. For her public service Stacy was named 2014 Ohio Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers and was honored by the Ohio Senate.

﻿Melissa Stanton, MPHLegislative Director

Melissa Stanton works by day as an advisor and award-winning editor for a livable communities initiative led by a national nonprofit association. Previously, she spent more than a decade at Time Inc., rising from the reporting ranks to senior editing positions at LIFE and People magazines. She is the author of two books, and her freelance articles have appeared in The New York Times and The Atlantic, among other publications. She has been a guest speaker about publishing, work-family matters, livability, and aging issues before audiences ranging from college classes and mothers' groups to national conferences attended by elected officials, policy makers, planners and community leaders. Melissa is an active advocate and volunteer on behalf of issues related to transportation, public safety, health, education, poverty, equality, and community development.​

﻿Debbie Owensby Moore, MSChapter Director

Debbie O. Moore is a community and education activist who became passionate about the need for healthy school hours when her daughter began high school. As a former university student affairs administrator, Debbie's interest in the politics of public education began over thirty years ago. She has served as the chapter leader of Start School Later Arlington, TX since 2012 and most recently as Start School Later's chapter leader coordinator. Debbie writes her perspective as an older than average parent in Diaries of an Older Mom.

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